Friday, 2 November 2018

Playing the game

The rest of the figures for the Great War turned up today, and I quickly put them into units and started playing a game.

A British unit advancing on the German line

The rules aren't written down. I'm making them up as I go. I start with a 10"move for infantry, firing is 24"long range and 12"short range. A 6 on a d6 will hit at long range, a 5 or 6 at short range. Firing at troops in cover is -1 to the die roll.

The table laid out. 4 units of British troops assault lines held by 2 and a half units of Germans

Troops can either move or fire. LMGs fire with 3d6.

Preparing to advance on the left flank.

First problem - how much does difficult terrain reduce movement by? I figure a good way to deal with this is to randomise the movement. I choose to roll 2 average dice to determine movement through terrain. This means a result of between 4"and 10".

The centre units are taking casualties. The closest unit is protected by the terrain.

After a couple of turns I come to the conclusion that all movement should be randomised. From now on every unit that moves will move 2dAv".

Units leaving dead behind.

Units are starting to take casualties. Now I need to think about how they will react. I decide that every time a unit takes a casualty it must test to continue. If it fails it is pinned. As it has gone to ground it is -1 to hit, but it can't advance. It also treats all targets as long range and can only hit on 6s at both short range and in hand to hand. The test is rolled on a d10. The required score must equal or be lower than the number of men left in the unit. An officer adds an extra +1 to the unit total.
The test is taken immediately after the firing phase of the enemy. At the beginning of the unit's own turn it may test again to try to unpin.

Less than 50% of the unit makes it past the barbed wire. Time for an assault?

The assault on the right is making some headway.

Now time to think about assaults. I decide that a d6 is rolled for every figure involved, including officers (they can't shoot). The attacker rolls first. Any hits remove an enemy. Once the attacker's have had their turn and enemy casualties are removed, the opponent can fight back with whatever they have left. The side with the fewest men left must test morale. If they fail, they break and run.

The centre has turned into a bloodbath - too many German troops in defence is the prognosis!

Running is 2dAv, like movement.

On the right the Allies break into the German trenches after their successful assault.

On the British left a unit is pinned, unable to rally and then fails a second test from being shot again. The result is to run away.

British left in retreat

Troops will be able to rally if they can pass a morale test, otherwise they will keep going 2dAv every turn until off the table.

The pity of war...

And that is it. The core of the rules work well. Barbed wire will get some special rules. I'll look at preliminary bombardments that may pin the enemy and remove entanglements. The other thought I had was to allow troops to fire at long range at troops in cover, but they can only force a morale test on the enemy with a 6, not cause casualties. Then there will be some point in fire and movement tactics.

It was a pleasant way to play a game, thinking up mechanisms as I went along. I'm looking forward to the next play-through with the '6s can always cause morale tests' rules. It might even things up a bit.